Well, I found a stock photo of it so it can’t be that unusual.

As a writer, I trade upon odd and unusual characteristics.

Conventional writing wisdom says that a story’s protagonist, no matter how much of an everyday, person-in-your-neighbourhood s/he’s meant to represent, should possess some special quality –  something that not only makes him/her memorable but also plays a role in motivating and ultimately resolving the story’s plot.

I mine a lot of my own life in my creation of characters – both my own characteristics and those of people I observe.  I then proceed to spend months and years with these fictional people, to the point that they become like real people to me: fully-realized, self-determining, and with certain traits in common with me.

This, I suppose, has the effect of inuring me to my own oddities.

Continue reading →